(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – The search committee to appoint an interim president for the Council on Postsecondary Education named Brad Cowgill, state budget director, to the position late yesterday.

Cowgill’s contract begins Sept. 1 and he is expected to serve through the next session of the general assembly. He will be paid $275,000 a year.

“We are extremely pleased with the appointment of Mr. Cowgill. The search committee is confident that he will be an effective and talented leader for the important work ahead,” stated John Turner, chairman of the Council.

“I am honored by the confidence which the members of the Council have placed in me and I look forward to working with the university presidents, legislators and the governor in fulfilling the state’s 2020 goals,” said Cowgill.

There will be a one-month transition period when Cowgill comes on board. Tom Layzell, current Council president, will retire Sept. 30.

The Council terminated its search last week for a permanent replacement for Layzell. The Council charged Turner and two other Council members, Dan Flanagan and Walter Baker, with the authority to appoint an interim president. The Council plans to reopen its search for a permanent replacement at a later date.

The Council is the state’s coordinating agency for postsecondary and adult education. The Council is charged with leading the reform efforts, including doubling the number of Kentuckians with a bachelor’s degree by the year 2020, as envisioned by state policy leaders in the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997.

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Kentucky’s postsecondary and adult education system is improving the economic vitality of the Commonwealth and the lives of Kentuckians. By raising educational attainment to the national average by 2020, Kentucky will attract higher wage and knowledge-based business and industry and the overall quality of life for Kentuckians will improve with higher incomes and levels of employment, better health, less obesity, more volunteerism, and lower crime and public assistance rates.